Opening a year-in-review piece with a negative reflection might not seem the most inviting of starting points, but I can’t help but ponder on a year where I attended the largest number of gigs with the lowest audience numbers in more than forty years of gig going.

11, 26, 28, 34, 45, 62, 90, 92… one of those tricky "what’s next in the sequence" head scratchers, perhaps.It isn't (although it is a head scratcher), it's more simply a selection of genuine audience numbers from attended gigs in 2017; each all the more notable for being attached to a genuine name artist or band, who would otherwise be expected to command far healthier crowds from a packed club gig to a theatre sized show.

Such small numbers are down to a number of contributing factors including event choice (tour routers not doing there what-else-is-on-that-night homework), punter apathy (compounded by the fact we live in a world where FaceBook Live uploads and next day YouTube viewing are commonplace), school nights, inclement weather, public transport times and a percentage of music lovers who won’t cross the threshold of a venue whose priority is how much beer they can sell and giving not an amplified hoot if you can hear the band over the loud chat.(a whole other discussion, but at least you can nowbuy the t-shirt).​But the biggest problem of them all is awareness, and knowing the gig was even on, which tends to go hand in hand with people becoming promoters at the drop of a hat and a quickly manufactured business card.Too many times (certainly north of the border) an individual has convinced a band or artist they can promote a gig, or set of gigs, before doing no more than booking a few venues, creating a Photoshopped A5 flyer, sticking it on the individual band members’ and band’s FaceBook page and Bob’s yer Auntie’s nephew who calls himself a promoter, job done, cheque please and what do you mean make sure it’s widely advertised, fully publicised and linked to all the major ticket outlets?

Luckily, the well-attended shows still outnumber the "am I at the right place on the right date?" gigs, but it is a problem, and it isn’t going away.

Thankfully good music isn’t going away either, the only problem for the likes of FabricationsHQ is finding the listening, reporting, promoting and reviewing time for it all – too much music, too little time.

But FabricationsHQ did its best in 2017 and while the site prides itself in its musical scope (progressive metal, modern/ melodic country, blues, prog rock, Americana and rootsy folk have all found themselves side by side, to name but six musical genres) it's unashamedly built upon a foundation of rock.

That said there were a fair number of rock notables missing from FabricationsHQ in 2017, but for a number of reasons, including that too many albums, too little time scenario, preference given to lesser known acts that deserve further attention (a FabricationsHQ trait) and, related to the latter, a few outstanding acts and albums that really don’t need another music site telling you how good they are.

Additionally, on the opposite side of the reviewing coin, there are those that didn’t make the grade, weren't worthy of further attention or wasn't the awesomely awesome, "best thing they *insert name of band or artist here* have ever done" product the PR company or gushing press release would have you believe.

​Conspicuous by their absence on FabricationsHQ in 2017, and spread fairly evenly across all the above, were seven major players or fairly heavy hitters by the names of U2, Deep Purple, the Black Star Riders, Thunder, Inglorious, Styx and, from the bluesier waters of the rock pool, Walter Trout.

Upon further review, however…

With Songs of Experience U2 delivered an all-grown-up companion piece, of sorts, to Songs of innocence.The album had a long gestation period including a number of lyrical rewrites (due to the impossible-to-ignore, shifting political climates); however that only resulted in making some of the lyrics sound very forced.

The bigger lyrical concept (Bono’s lyrics based around letters he wrote to people and places of importance) was carried by a musical vehicle of U2 re-treads, others that came across as a band trying to be hip or sounding like Coldplay (oh, the irony) and a handful of more genuinely interesting pieces such as the hymnal styled opening and closing tracks 'Love is All We Have Left' and '13 (The Light).'

​As regards Bono’s lyrical letters of thanks, I trust that included a huge nod of gratitude to his financial advisors and those looking after his shopping centre in Utena.

Deep Purple meanwhile produced arguably their best album of their 21st century catalogue with InFinite.It was also, for many Purple aficionados, an album that embraced their early 70s sound to wonderful effect, an intentional ploy due, no doubt, to the fact this could be their last full-length studio hurrah (the album title and a lengthy world tour named The Long Goodbye certainly hint at a closure of either the Purple painted studio doors and / or a wind-down in live performance).But InFinite also managed to mesh their classic sound with a more contemporary rock sonic...

The Black Star Riders are one of the most successful of the new breed of rock bands (but with notable individual pedigrees) but also one of the most polarising, due to their seemingly incessant need (as reinforced on third album Heavy Fire) to be a Thin Lizzy sound-a-like one minute and a more contemporary, edgier and far better band the next (the latter particularly successful when front man Ricky Warwick becomes his own Almighty rock singer and the Lizzy shackles are off).​Either be the Black Star Riders, boys, or call yourselves Phil-less Lizzy – but then ex Lizzy alumni Scott Gorham knows what the majority of classic rock fans/ Lizzy lovers want to hear, so for a third to a half of every album and tour, The Boys are Back in Town. Again.

Two bands with quite the age difference – the now twenty-nine year old Thunder and new kids on the rock block, Inglorious – were in the difficult position of follow that own material of yours, then, courtesy of Thunder's outstanding 2015 release Wonder Years (their strongest outing since they were all Laughing on Judgement Day a quarter of a century earlier) and the critically acclaimed, and rather stonking, Inglorious debut.

Both failed to follow what had gone before, but only because those previous albums were so exceptional.Thunder still delivered a great album with Rip It Up, albeit it was a more varied mix of the band’s fun and swaggering blues rock ‘n’ roll and AOR rock (similar to the band’s late 90s musical transition but here done to far greater effect with a stronger album).

Inglorious, for their part, delivered the accurately titled Inglorious II.As the title suggests it was very much more of the same (with a bluesy additive) but without having the overall quality or "wait until you hear this band" impact of the first outing.

Styx delivered not just their first album of all new material in fourteen years (one of many acts who are now as much brand as band and know their 21st century bread is buttered in greatest hits sets and classic album performances) but a segued, conceptual work exactly forty years on from the album that set them on the road to progressive pomp and melodic rock glory, The Grand Illusion.

The Mission was also the band’s highest charting album in the US for thirty-four years (albeit #45), but that could well have been based on the promotional hype, the long-awaited appearance of a new album from the Styx Faithful and The Grand Illusion comparisons made by Tommy Shaw (who wrote most of the mission to mars concept with singer-songwriter-producer, and previous Shaw collaborator, Will Evankovich).

It’s melodic pop and radio friendly sheen contained a clearly intentional classic Styx-rock and Styx-pop sound (particularly evident on the more rock and roll styled numbers and vocal harmonies) but as a complete work it fell flat on occasion – and for Tommy Shaw to state that, with The Mission, they were looking to deliver"a record that had some resonance with our heyday but nonetheless was reflecting our current line-up and their capabilities to perhaps go beyond what we did then…" that’s the real Grand Illusion.

Walter Trout, having truly lived and nearly died for the blues during his serious illness and thankfully successful 11th hour liver transplant a few years ago, delivered what are perhaps his best ever back to back brace of albums with The Blues Came Callin’ (2014) and Battle Scars (2015).It was perhaps no surprise therefore that he took a more relaxed and celebratory blues route in 2017 with We’re All in This Together, each song featuring a different blues buddy including Kenny Wayne Shepherd (who delivered the rather tasty Lay It On Down in 2017), Sonny Landreth, Robben Ford, John Mayall and Joe Bonamassa.

​The mention of blues brings us to that very genre, or more specifically the blues rock derivative, which continues to blossom and is a continual visitor to FabricationsHQ.

2017 notables included the best of the young and the old, exemplified by the emerging Catfish (Broken Man) and the musically timeless and seemingly ageless Robin Trower (Time and Emotion).There were also a number of excellent debut albums including the first full-length release from the smoky voiced Elles Bailey (Wildfire) and noteworthy first album outings from soul-rock blues songstress Molly Marriott (Truthis a Wolf) and the contemporary, bluesy fire lit by Ash Wilson (Broken Machine).

Two blues based releases that didn’t make the FabricationsHQ review pages in 2017 (one another victim of too many albums, too little time; the other 2017’s finest (or worst) King’s New Clothes moment) were The Quireboys and Black Stone Cherry.

Black Stone Cherry, while garnering critical and fan plaudits here there and everywhere (rather inevitably, given their rock pedigree and dedicated fan-base) produced a dud with their 6-Ttrack mini-albumBlack to Blues.​Whether intentionally spending as little time as possible or just wanting to put out a filler/ stop-gap blues covers album with little production value, their roughshod run through half a dozen standards (including a particularly bludgeoning take of Muddy Waters’ 'Champagne and Reefer') was never going to have FabricationsHQ waxing lyrical.

By contrast White Trash Blues, The Quireboys set of harmonica, guitar and honky-tonk piano led blues covers, was a delightfully loose in vibe but tightly delivered rhythm and romp across a collection of standards including 'I Wish You Would,' 'Goin’ Down' and 'I’m a King Bee,' front man Spike and the band coming across like a gargling sand version of Rod Stewart and a blues derivative of The Faces respectively, with a twinkle in their bluesy eyes and a glass in their hands.

For all the rock that’s embedded in the blues these days (or classic rock with a blues twist, as showcased on King King’s excellentExile & Gracealbum) FabricationsHQ has no hesitation on giving multi-faceted British rhythm and blues quartet The Mustangs the award for best blues based album for 2017, courtesy of their beautifully conceived and thought provoking work (ranging from the melancholic and bittersweet to the optimistic and life affirming), Just Passing Through.

A train ride down the tracks of life,Just Passing Throughis three score and ten years (and hopefully a lot more in this longer living day and age) in musical form, encapsulated in forty six minutes of travel from embarkation to final stop.

The sad commercial reality however is not enough people got on board, or intentionally let The Mustangs train go by, happier to wait for one that travelled a more familiar route of rocking rhythms, 12 bar and trad slow blues than take a chance on something truly creative, conceptual and progressive.

Talking of progressive, many a fan of that genre got their prog knickers in a twist when Steven Wilson, the current leading light of British prog, injected some pop in to his prog on his more accessible and slightly more commercial To The Bonealbum.Arguments of just what is and isn't prog aside, it was refreshing to hear an album such as To the Bone (which was still a fully formed and outstanding progressive release with that trademark Steven Wilson uplifting light and darker shade) adding melodic pop, or pop phrasing, to its sonic tapestry (similarly Cardington, the excellent second album from Lifesigns, and the equally impressive pop themed progressive nature of Skyscraper Souls, the third album from the Downes Braide Association).

Beyond the poppified prog of Lifesigns and proggified pop of DBA there’s also a large number of boundary pushing post-progressive bands to be heard out there, many of whom are signed to Kscope, a label who champions and nurtures such acts.Supporting both those bands and the label is prog aficionado John Stout, who gives you the "What’s To Like" lowdown on all things Kscope (from ambient soundscape artists to the more metal-edged), as well as a selection of other prog and rock related reviews, over at his Moments In Transition blog.

One man, or one woman, and his or her acoustic guitar usually fits the singer-songwriter bill; but so too does a work that is clearly conceptualised by one individual but may feature a number of musicians, or guest players.​Quint Starkie produced an exceptional case of the latter with his striking, childhood-in-musical-memories album Ghost In My Heart, a beautifully melodic work with a strong sense of lyrical purpose and Francis Dunnery as executive producer.​Originally released in November 2016, Ghost in My Heart was rereleased exactly one year later on all digital formats, which will hopefully help garner it the attention, and critical acclaim, it so thoroughly deserves.

​With the same passion for creativity and craft as Quint Starkie, but working in a whole different musical world, is classically based Scottish guitarist Simon Thacker who, in collaboration with Polish cellist Justyna Jablonska, produced an astonishing and groundbreaking piece of work entitled Karmana.Featuring the thirty minute, seven movement 'Karmana Suite,' the album also includes tracks exploring the Polish and Roma music traditions and a couple of classical meets contemporary meets progressive reinventions of two traditional Scottish tunes.

For those who wish to dip their toes in to the magical Karmana waters, you’ll find something truly progressive, impressive and immersive, and for more on the album and Simon Thacker, check out FabricationsHQ’s detailed and extensive interview feature with Simon.

To counter the negative (beer) glass half empty opening remarks of this article it’s satisfying to be able to reflect on another great year for new or upcoming talent with solid potential, including a fair few attention grabbers on my own side of the border.

And it’s not just new Scottish bands – Zal Cleminson, most famously part of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and, for a shorter time, Nazareth, has got his musical mojo back after a decade away from the business and come back with a bang; and a pretty damn loud and effective one.Zal Cleminson’s new band Sin Dogs have, through a handful of shows and their recently released EP, shown themselves to be a contemporary and edgy outfit that flit between rock theatre and rock-metal, proving you actually can teach an old Sin dog new tricks.​Meanwhile, running with the younger dogs are pack leaders Mason Hill (recently signed to Frontiers Records) with Anchor Lane snapping at their heavy, contemporary rock heels.

At least a dozen more are chasing after both but equally encouraging is the fact there are so many differing musical styles on display – consider Concrete Kingdoms and their contemporary hard rock with an Indie vibe... the heavy melodic rock of The King Lot, whose second album A World Without Evil was the first Featured Album review of 2018 on FabricationsHQ... heavy rock blues from the Swamp Born Assassins... the melodically framed alt-rockers IKARI... the funk driven groove-rock of Black King Cobra, to name but five worthy of attention or a gig ticket.

Bands such as those just mentioned and the wider UK spectrum of newer rock talent including, but certainly not restricted to, Stone Broken, Bad Touch, Massive Wagons, Knock Out Kaine, Samarkind, Baleful Creed, Kane'd, THEIA, The Bad Flowers, Bigfoot, Burnt Out Wreck (the latter two producing stand-out debut albums in 2017) and Dirty Thrills, whose exceptional second album, Heavy Living, was given the nod to for rock based album of the year at FabricationsHQ, all help disprove the still too often heard nonsense that there is no great new music, or no great new bands, in rock.

To be fair that particular non-rocking rhetoric is usually delivered by those that would prefer to hear a classic rock covers band in their local for free rather than pay ten, fifteen or twenty quid to see two or three fantastic new bands, while also happy to pay the big bucks to see a now-franchise act delivering what is effectively a greatest hits or classic era only set.

But in truth there’s a place for both the old and the new; it isn’t about one or the other.Nor was that ever the problem – the only issue is, of course...Too much music, too little time.

With apologies to those missed, forgotten or whose paths crossed but fleetingly in the promotion of good music in 2017, FabricationsHQ thanks:All the artists worked with directly, their managers and the labels, Red Sand PR, Cherry Red Records, Noble PR, The Publicity Connection, Republic Media, Glass Onyon PR, Nineteen 73 Artist Promotion, BJF Media/PR, G Promo PR, BigiAM Promotion & Management, Campbell Stewart and The Fatman’s Rock Show, Paul Stewart and the Pablo Blues Show, all the photographers and contributing reviewers including John McIntyre of Stage Time Promotions (reviewing Edinburgh & Lothians entertainment), John Brown of Music Comms, Stephen Stanley of Solid Entertainments, Lauren Hutchinson of Down the Rabbit Hole PR, Alan Russell and the team at DreadnoughtRock, Sheila and Neil McKenna and the Darvel Music Company, Ian McCaig & WinterStorm Troon.